Lung cancer test: blow once, please!

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Blow a quick blow into the tube - that's how easy a lung cancer test could be in the future. Because molecules from the lung cells also swirl in the air we breathe. If they are changed, this suggests a tumor. This works even in the early stages of the disease.

It starts with seemingly harmless niggles - you feel exhausted, suffer from a persistent cough, and lose weight. But once a lung tumor becomes noticeable, the chances of a cure are poor. Five years after diagnosis, only 16 percent of men with the disease and 21 percent of women are still alive. "In the early stages, when there is still a good chance of a cure, lung cancer is usually only discovered by chance," says Guillermo Barreto from the Max Planck Institute in Bad Nauheim in an interview with

Tubes instead of tubes

It would be all the more important to finally have a simple and reliable method for early detection. So far, risk candidates such as smokers have had to regularly lie in the tube. Checking with a computer tomograph is time-consuming and expensive - and the patients are exposed to radioactive radiation. "In addition, the number of false-positive results is comparatively high," says Barreto. Such a finding unnecessarily frightens the patient.

Barreto and his colleagues have developed a method that is not only easier to use, but could possibly even be more precise than an X-ray: a breath test. To do this, the patient blows into a device that captures, compresses and condenses the exhaled air. The sample obtained in this way is examined in the laboratory for certain molecules that are formed in the cell nuclei of the lung tissue.

Tell-tale snippets of molecules

These are sections of the so-called RNA. These are copies of certain sections of DNA that are used to read the information from the genes. The researchers found fragments of two unusual RNAs of the genes GATA6 and NKX2 in the air breathed by people with lung cancer.

"In this form, these are normally only active in embryonic cells," says Barreto. If they suddenly appear in the air, this indicates a tumor. In fact, embryonic cells and cancer cells have one thing in common: unlike healthy body cells, they can divide indefinitely. This is necessary in the embryonic stage. In the case of cells in the adult body, however, this ability means uncontrolled growth - and thus cancer.

The researchers recently tested the method on 138 test subjects, including lung cancer patients, patients with the lung diseases COPD or fibrosis, and healthy participants. They were able to correctly identify 98 percent of lung cancer patients.

Whispering mail in the lung tissue

The researchers cannot precisely explain why the procedure also works when the tumor is comparatively far away from the airways. But they have a hypothesis: "The lung cells communicate with one another," says Barreto - "also via the RNA." In this way, the segments could be passed on and finally end up in the air.

Identify forms of cancer

So far, the researchers have only tested the method for one specific type of lung cancer: non-small cell lung cancer. "The test can also be used to identify all other forms of lung cancer and also determine which type of cancer it is," says Barreto. And it can also be determined whether someone suffers from COPD or another lung disease: "Every disease has its own RNA profile," says the scientist. The researchers are currently evaluating the corresponding data for their next publication.

Should the method prove itself in tests with larger patient groups, it would be a very promising candidate for screening high-risk patients. Then every resident pulmonologist could have the patient blown - and send the samples to the laboratory.

The fact that the procedure is so uncomplicated could help advance the early detection of lung cancer significantly. In Germany alone, more than 40,000 people die from it every year who would have had a good chance of survival with an early diagnosis.

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